One spring trend created by female rap acts is a sportif style with racing stripes on the sides of sleeves and legs, varsity logos and letters, cropped tanks, sleeveless bodysuits and stretch bike shorts.

Madonna focused the wandering eye of fashion onto the trend last year, when she wore Laura Whitcomb's long-sleeve, body-hugging, Adidas dress. Whitcomb had been outfitting fly girls in Los Angeles with an exclusive license to the Adidas logo, which she put on streamlined dresses and hip-hugging hot pants. Her message: power can be pretty and strong can be sexy.

It didn't take long for the message to be picked up by Seventh Avenue.

Last November, Norma Kamali used real athletes to show her sports-influenced spring line of minidresses with built-in bodysuits. Being a fitness buff herself - weight training, aerobics and a strict nutrition regimen - she said her designs grew out of her experience as well as interviews with female athletes. She sees the trend evolving with lifestyles.

"As we women evolve, we tend to think of fitness and beauty as one, rather than as separate. We are making different ways of exercising a regular pattern in our lives," Kamali told the Orange County Register.

Donna Karan showed wrap skirts with shorts peeking out from underneath, with either big zippered anorak coats or cropped, zippered sweat jackets. Michael Kors showed stretch knit tops resembling swimsuits or leotards with matte jersey miniskirts - at a glance, they looked like towels wrapped around the waist after a dip.

With his Polo Sport line, Ralph Lauren included pants as sleek and body-conscious as running tights and crop tops. On the runway, some models even wore Walkmans and appeared to be deep into a workout trance.

But if you're not a fixture at the gym, beware: with all those stripes and stretch, these athletic-inspired designs can make you look like a four-lane boulevard. Go for an athletic-looking tank with jeans or a short, stretchy skirt with a matching tennis warm-up jacket. That Karan anorak jacket is starting to look good for a cover-up.